Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Comic Con 2009 - A Post mortem

I hadn't really thought about blogging on our trip to Comic Con this year, as I spent most of the weekend in our booth evangelizing the art of Ralph McQuarrie. That said, we did have a few interesting encounters, and a couple of folks have expressed an interest, so here's a brief recap.

We spent the week below a huge hi-def video screen promoting the latest offerings from Lucasfilm, including the fan favorite trailer for The Old Republic MMO game, as well as Star Wars in Concert that's coming to San Jose on October 11.

We met up with some of the art department from The Clone Wars, and supervising director Dave Filoni stopped by the booth to chat with us for a bit about his fondness for Ralph McQuarrie. The trailer for the next season of the show looks pretty amazing.

Joe Hill was there promoting his current comic series Locke & Key. If you've never read any of his work, I highly recommend his novel Heart Shaped Box. His highly acclaimed short story, "Pop Art", from his collection 20th Century Ghosts is also very much worth tracking down.

There were several celebrity near misses by our booth, from Wesley Snipes to Nick (son of Gene) Simmons. If you caught any footage of the G4 show in the Lucasfilm Pavilion, it's likely we were no more than 10-15 feet away. Also signing not too far from us were three of the stars of the Battlestar Galactica remix - Edward James Olmos, as well as the actors who portrayed Col. Tigh and Baltar. Mark Hamill was also signing, but I didn't see him on this trip.

We were able to meet up with artist Tim Bradstreet, who we're looking forward to working with in the very near future, and he introduced me to Thomas Jane, star of The Punisher, The Mist, and most recently the HBO series Hung.

I also met the creators of Hoops and Yo Yo. If you've been in a Hallmark store in the last few years, you'd recognize them instantly.

There was a lot of talk around the con about James Cameron's Avatar, Tron: Legacy, and Time Burton's Alice in Wonderland - I unfortunately didn't get a chance to take in any panels. I previously posted a link to the Tron footage - I'm amazed at how much buzz this is generating.

I did manage to come away with several nice art books, and a small plastic tub of zombies.

After trips to SDCC in 2004 and 2006, I swore I'd never return due to the size of the crowds and the related insanity they bring. but it was an interesting opportunity to have a booth in the Lucasfilm Pavilion. Will we be back? That remains to be seen - but there are aspects of the show I do continue to enjoy, and would be willing to brave the crowds to experience yet again, so who knows...

Fortunately, we had a nice place to stay on a hillside about 15 minutes north of downtown, and Vonna prepared amazing meals for us each night of the show.

Next up for us will be Star Wars Fan III Days in Texas in October - and then next year's Star Wars Celebration V... date and location TBD.